Turkey continues shelling Syrian military positions

In a sharp escalation of tensions between Turkey and Syria, theTurkish military shelling into Syria that began on Wednesday continuedinto Thursday, as retaliatory strikes for the killing of a mother andher three daughters and another woman by Syrian mortars that landed inTurkey. Turkey’s targets were Syrian military positions in Syria,resulting in the deaths of an unknown number of Syrian soldiers.Turkey has stopped shelling, but is continuing to deploy tanks andanti aircraft missiles in Akcakale, the town where the five Turkishcitizens were killed on Wednesday. Zaman (Istanbul)

Turkey’s Parliament on Thursday gave authority to the government todeploy troops in Syria or other countries if an when it finds such anact necessary for national security. Once again, this is a sharpescalation, since it makes it possible, with no further authorization,for prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to order a military invasionof Syria. This means that at the next provocation, Erdogan won’t haveany excuse for hesitating.

On Thursday, Erdogan gave a harsh speech, and contradicted Syria’sclaim that Syria’s shelling inside Turkey was an “accident”:

We have no intention of starting a war with Syria.

We as Turkey just want peace and security in our region. We couldnever be interested in something like starting a war. Theconsequences of war are plain to see in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the Turkish Republic is a state capable of defending itscitizens and borders. Nobody should try and test our determinationon this subject.

He said that there have been many similar incidents in the past,though this is the first with five casualties.

Even today, we had a shell landing in Hatay cityAltinozu district.

An accident can be called “an accident” once, twice, three times,but four, five six times, but how is this an accident, when ithappens eight times?

UN Security Council issues a watered-down statement on Syria

As usual, the Russians, who are as guilty as Syria’s president Basharal-Assad for the violence going on in Syria, opposed any statement inthe United Nations Security Council that condemned Syria. It’samazing that anything was accomplished at all, but the UNSC did issuea watered-down statement:

The members of the Security Council condemned in thestrongest terms the shelling by the Syrian armed forces of theTurkish town of Akcakale, which resulted in the deaths of fivecivilians, all of whom were women and children, as well as anumber of injuries. The members of the Security Council expressedtheir sincere condolences to the families of the victims and tothe Government and people of Turkey.

The members of the Security Council underscored that this incidenthighlighted the grave impact the crisis in Syria has on thesecurity of its neighbours and on regional peace and stability.The members of the Council demanded that such violations ofinternational law stop immediately and are not repeated. Themembers of the Security Council called on the Syrian Government tofully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of itsneighbours.

The members of the Security Council called forrestraint.

The Russians insisted on removing a sentence in the original draftcalling the Syrian attack “a serious threat to international peace andsecurity.” The compromise text referred instead to concerns as to theimpact of the crisis in Syria on “the security of its neighbors and onregional peace and stability.” United Nations and Reuters

Turkey may have captured the killers of U.S. envoy Chris Stevens

The alleged killers of U.S. envoy Chris Stevens in Benghazi, Libya,have been detained by Turkey on Wednesday, according to unconfirmedreports. Two Tunisian citizens accused of the murder were apprehendedon Wednesday evening by police at Istanbul Atatürk Airport whiletrying to enter Turkey with fake passports. They have been taken tothe Istanbul Police Department for questioning. Hurriyet

Aron Nimzovich: ‘Why must I lose to this IDIOT?’

In 1925 in Baden-Baden Germany, chess grandmaster Aron Nimzovich wasplaying a crucial game with grandmaster Friedrich Saemisch, a gamethat would decide first place. Nimzovich was the superior chessplayer, but he lost to Saemisch, and as he was about to be checkmated,he got up from the table and yelled, “Why must I lose to this IDIOT?”

That was the attitude that I saw reflected in President Obama’ssullen, resentful face during the Wednesday evening debate. Iinterpreted Obama’s attitude to his Gen-X contempt of Boomers. “TheseBoomers are jackasses, so why should I have to debate this lying,arrogant crook who’s a danger to the world?”

I’m pretty sure that President Obama was thinking words like “liar,”the debate and saw these so-called newsmen use these and similar newsas they spewed out vitriol as if they were a bunch of teenage girls.

As I’ve written several times in the past, I consider PresidentObama’s failures, including his failure in Wednesday’s debate, to bethe fault of his hatred of Boomers. (From 2007: “Barack Obama to Boomers: Drop dead!”) No one can be successful for long if all his policiesare based on hatred of one-third of the population.

Spain’s Rajoy continues to play games with bailout

European officials are in a tizzy because Spain’sPrime Minister Mariano Rajoy refuses to make an officialrequest for a bailout, although everyone knows that it can’tbe avoided. There have been reports that Rajoy was finallygoing to seek a bailout this weekend. Here was hisresponse:

If there is some agency, or someone, who says thatthis weekend we are going to ask for a bailout, as they say, thereare two possibilities: that this agency is right and has betterinformation than I do, which is possible, or that is not the case,which may also be possible.